Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/338

272 •^'-2 TRANSACTIONS AT line accidentally breaking, the act was incohi- plete, and matters were left as they now are. They show a hole in the rock, about two feet diameter, which quite perforates it, and in which Tangaloa's hook got fixed. It is more- over said that Tooitonga (the divine chief) had, till within a few years, this very hook in his possession, which had been handed down to him by his forefathers ; but, unfortunately, his house catching fire, the basket in which the hook was kept got burnt with its contents. Mr. Mariner once asked Tooitonga what sort of a hook it was, and was told that it was made of tortoise-shell, strengthened by a piece of the bone of a whale : in size and shape it was just like a large albacore hook, measuring six or seven inches long, from the curve to the part where the line was attached, and an inch and a half between the barb and the stem. Mr. Mariner objected that such a hook must have been too weak for the purpose ; Oh no, said Tooitonga, you must recollect that it was a god's hook, and could not break ; — how came then the line to break ? was it not also the pro- perty of a god ? — 1 do not know how that was, replied Tooitonga ; but such is the account they give, and I know nothing farther about it. A few days after this excursion, Finow hav- ing portioned out several of the smaller